OPINION

Ever since Gov. Scott Walker's so-called jobs session in the state Legislature devolved into a prolonged attack on Planned Parenthood -- closing clinics, eliminating funding for routine cancer screenings and making felons of abortion doctors whose patients won't jump through medically unnecessary hoops -- our state has been on the leading edge of the national Republican anti-woman attack. >More

In April 2010, Ron Johnson was a relatively obscure Oshkosh businessman, but seven months later he defeated Russ Feingold and became Wisconsin's junior senator. Will lightning strike twice, with another renegade outsider winning the state's remaining Senate seat in 2012? Since the outsider in question is Eric Hovde, there's a good chance the answer will be yes. >More

We knew it was coming. The negative TV ads have begun -- and we're not even done with the recall primaries yet. Spending some of the millions he's been collecting from out of state, Gov. Scott Walker decided to take on two of his possible Democratic challengers at once, rather than waiting to see who wins the May 8 election. >More

It's all about the 4.1%. Any Democrat running against Scott Walker in the recall election will get about 46% of the vote by virtue of the fact that they're not him. And the governor will get 46% on the other side because he is who he is. So the question for the Democrats is: Who can win a majority of the 8% or so of Wisconsin voters who are up for grabs? >More

After weeks of campaigning by the GOP presidential candidates, competing to show who could take the hardest line against Planned Parenthood, a bomb went off at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Appleton Sunday, bringing all the incendiary rhetoric to a head. Despite Republican assurances that the "war on women's health" is liberal hyperbole, the political chatter about ending Planned Parenthood has stirred up dangerous elements in our deeply divided state. >More

Hey, did you hear the Republican presidential candidates are in Wisconsin this week? Wait…why are you yawning? In any other quadrennial year, having presidential candidates descend on Wisconsin would be a big deal. In 2008, with the Democratic nomination still up for grabs, scores of national volunteers and media outlets descended on the Badger State to report on the fight between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. >More

The Legislature finally finished its session, and here is what we got: $1.6 billion in cuts to our public schools and a $300 million increase for dubious, unaccountable voucher schools. The repeal of the Healthy Youth Act mandating accurate, age-appropriate sex education. A ban on private health insurers providing abortion coverage. The rollback of the state's pay-equity law for women. 23,000 low-income Wisconsinites losing their health insurance under BadgerCare, including 2,900 children. Here is what we didn't get: Jobs. >More

Anne Katz modestly describes Madison's long-pondered cultural plan as "a beginning point" for giving the arts a more prominent role in Madison life. As chair of the cultural plan steering committee, she further dampens expectations by saying that no one recommendation outweighs another. >More

As part of national Sunshine Week, March 11-17, the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council is bestowing its annual "Opee" Awards for openness in government. And Wisconsin state lawmakers have been tapped for both kinds of awards -- good as well as bad. Six Opees are being given to eight individuals for 2011-12. >More

If you're going to mess with a block as historic as the 100 block of State Street, then you have to answer two questions: What's the justification for that change? And will what you build to replace it be better than what is there now? In my view, Jerry Frautschi's proposal for the 100 block (made through his 100 Block Foundation) doesn't come with sufficient reason for change, and it would be a good deal less interesting than the current buildings. >More